U.S. District Judge Fred W. Slaughter sentenced a Mexican Mafia associate to 10 years in federal prison for his role in a prison assault that left a man’s throat slashed.
Robert Amezcua, 54, a.k.a. “Flaco,” of Santa Ana, received 120 months for the 2019 attack in an Orange County jail, following a three-day trial.
Prosecutors alleged the charges were in aid of racketeering, specifically, attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon, in the attack made by a Santa Clarita man and one other at the Theo Lacy Facility in Orange.
Mher Darbinyan, 50, a.k.a. “Hollywood Mike,” of Valencia, is serving a 30-month federal prison sentence after pleading guilty in January 2024 to conspiracy to commit assault resulting in serious bodily injury.
Darbinyan admitted in his plea agreement that he and two co-conspirators assaulted the victim. Robert Martinez, 43, a.k.a. “Lil Rob” and “Blacky,” of Placentia, another defendant charged in the 2019 attack, is scheduled for trial on Aug. 4 on this charge and additional charges.
Amezcua delivered more than 20 blows to the victim while another inmate, using a razor blade, slashed the victim’s throat. The victim survived the attack.
Darbinyan was identified as a leader of the Armenian Power gang in a 2014 news release stating he was sentenced to 32 years in prison for his role in “a racketeering conspiracy that included extortion, bank fraud, and a sophisticated credit and debit card-skimming scam.
“According to the evidence presented at trial, Darbinyan was a leader of Armenian Power, a gang responsible for extortion, firearms offenses, fraud, and identity theft throughout the Los Angeles-area,” according to the statement from the Department of Justice. “Among other activities, Darbinyan operated a sophisticated bank fraud scheme that used middlemen and runners to deposit and cash hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent checks drawn on the accounts of elderly bank customers and businesses. Separately, Darbinyan also organized and operated a sophisticated debit card skimming operation targeting customers of 99 Cents Only Stores across Southern California.”
